Denver Air Connection (DAC) is a Colorado-based company that is once again expanding eastward. The airline will operate 11 weekly flights from Atlanta to Jackson, Tennessee’s Essential Air Service (EAS) neighborhood in accordance with the recently awarded contract.
Atlanta will witness the DornierJet providing commercial services to the airport for the first time since Atlantic Coast Airlines stopped operating the type on behalf of Delta Connection and United Express in the early 2000s. DAC will serve the community using a combination of 50-seat Embraer E145s and 30-seat Dornier 328Jets. Additionally, it’s thought that since the 1980s or 1990s, Jackson, Tennessee’s airport has not had scheduled jet service.
Even though DAC and Delta scheduled their new interline baggage agreement back in January 2024, this new route to the airline’s largest hub and headquarters will highlight the vast array of connections that DAC will be able to provide from the hub. Atlanta is the first scheduled destination in the eastern time zone for DAC, while Jackson is in the central time zone.
Beginning on December 1, 2024, the agreement will last for four years, ending on November 30, 2028. The subsidy amounts are as follows: $7,954,117 in year one, $8,510,905 in year two, $9,106,668 in year three, and $9,744,135 in year four. Additionally, the Department of Transportation (DOT) is requiring Southern Airways Express, the existing airline based in Jackson, to remain until DAC is prepared to begin service in December, even though the carrier’s contract was set to expire in June.
